Court Battles

Justice Department sues DC authorities over efforts to discipline Jeff Clark, Ed Martin

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by Rebecca Beitsch - 05/14/26 12:43 PM ET

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by Rebecca Beitsch - 05/14/26 12:43 PM ET

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The Justice Department (DOJ) is suing the Washington, D.C., Office of Disciplinary Counsel after it brought disciplinary proceedings against two of President Trump’s allies, Jeffrey Clark and Ed Martin.

Clark, the former DOJ official who urged the department to intervene and open an investigation into Trump’s 2020 election loss in Georgia, was found last year by the D.C. Bar Association to have broken ethical rules, recommending he be disbarred.

Martin is facing disciplinary proceedings after he sent letters to Georgetown University threatening to take action against the school if it did not end its diversity, equity and inclusion practices. Martin, now the U.S. Pardon Attorney, was given the role after he failed to secure Senate backing for a role leading the Office of the U.S. Attorney Office in D.C.

The late Wednesday suit claims the bar is “weaponizing state bar discipline against Executive Branch attorneys in this way chills them from giving candid legal advice.”

“The D.C. Bar will no longer be permitted to probe sensitive Executive Branch deliberations and target Executive Branch officials with whom they happen to politically disagree, and Federal attorneys will once again be free to share their candid legal advice with their bosses and colleagues,” said Stanley Woodward, the No. 3 lawyer at the Justice Department who previously served as an attorney for Trump’s co-defendants in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case.

The D.C. Bar did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Bar associations are tasked with ensuring its members follow the code expected of attorneys and have the power to strip the law licenses of those that fail to meet standards of professional responsibility.

The Trump administration has repeatedly complained about bar associations, with a statement from acting Attorney General Todd Blanche accusing the D.C. bar of acting as a “blatantly partisan arm of leftist causes.”

Clark is one of a number of lawyers involved in Jan. 6 who have faced discipline over their role in aiding Trump.

In many cases, the associations have found Trump attorneys provided false information to the courts and failed to meet ethical guidelines for representation.

The California Supreme Court disbarred John Eastman in April on recommendation from the bar association there, finding he failed to meet the responsibility to “act with honesty and uphold the rule of law, regardless of the client they represent or the context in which that representation occurs.”

Eastman, they found, repeatedly “advanced false claims about the 2020 presidential election to mislead courts, public officials, and the American public.”

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani lost his law license in both D.C. and New York over his legal work related to Jan. 6.

Clark on Wednesday celebrated the suit.

“This is an important step to vindicate the separation of powers,” he wrote on social media.

In Martin’s case, the suit argues he should not face blowback over sending a “pre-decisional draft document.”

Martin has been at the center of a number of Justice Department controversies.

A former “Stop the Steal” organizer, Martin has steadfastly defended Jan. 6 rioters. As interim U.S. attorney, he oversaw the firings and reassignments of prosecutors who worked on Jan. 6 cases.

After moving over to main Justice, he was removed as the head of DOJ’s Weaponization Working Group after just a few months on the job.

The DOJ took the remarkable step of launching a grand jury in Maryland to evaluate whether Martin improperly deputized figures outside DOJ to help with probes into Trump foes Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and New York Attorney General Letitia James (D).

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